I was looking through some old emails the other day, and I saw someone mention the Human Resources Management Conference. I thought it sounded interesting, so I clicked through expecting to see a small, local event that might be semi-interesting to attend. Then my jaw dropped. This event is loaded with amazing speakers, great content, and it’s in its 56th year! Wow. So I reached out to the conference organizers to see if I could cover the event for them, and they quickly got back to me with a press pass. This is going to be pretty sweet!

What I’m looking forward to

There are several sessions I am planning to attend (although this could change with the flow of the day). Check out the descriptions from the event brochure to see what kind of cool stuff I have to look forward to!

• Leadership GPS - Growth, Performance, Sustainment®What is your organizational direction? Are you ready to emphasize growth over survival?Are you ready to demonstrate to your organizational leaders that they are vitaland valuable? Are you ready to re-calibrate your organizational GPS? This lively andinteractive session addresses the basic foundations for leadership training that canactually improve the business bottom-line.
• Managing For High Performance and Retention: Key Drivers of Employee Engagement - Based on extensive analysis of data from 90,000 employees around the world, this presentation discusses the top 10 ways in which managers can drive higher levels of performance and commitment from the workforce. It specifically examines how managers directly and indirectly drive employee performance through engagement. Further, the presentation considers how the manager influences employee engagement with the broader organization in addition to the team and to the employee’s immediate work.
• Social Media as an HR Tool: How It Can Help and How It Can Hurt - Does your organization twitter, blog, wiki, link in and have “face” time on the web? This timely session focuses on not only using social media as an HR tool for recruiting, screening, training and development, building a community image and more, but also covers social media liabilities – what is being used against companies that you should avoid. Our presenters teach how to use social media in HR while watching out for pitfalls and liabilities.
• On the Recruiting Trail - It’s now widely recognized that HR is a key function in driving business forward and influencing business strategy. Companies are more aware of the value and importance of HR functions and the need to recruit and retain the best workforce. Companies also demand that diversity of thought and experience be brought to the table to address their needs in a more comprehensive way. From the Strategy Model to the Intake Model this session takes a look at how to automate and accelerate each step in the recruitment process.

Why this event is unique

Although I’m not a big football fan, since it’s held on the University of Alabama campus, everything has a football theme to it. Scoring, half time, and tailgating are just a few of the terms that run through the agenda, and I love to see people having fun and breaking the mold of conference customs.

If you’re in the Alabama area and think you might like to attend, here’s the link to sign up online.

On a side note, hopefully I’ll be able to wrangle Kris Dunn into a conversation. Only had the opportunity to meet him once before but definitely looking forward to it again!

I’ve had some major conference envy recently with everyone attending other events, so now it’s my turn to attend a killer show and bring the content to you live!

Even though I can’t be there in Chicago to take part in the HRevolution tweetup sponsored by our friends at Rypple, I wanted to shoot a quick video wishing everyone a good time and lots of great conversations!

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All I can say about my experience at #SHRM10 is “wow.” I’m still trying to digest all of the lessons from the event, but I can already say that it was completely worth my time and sweat investment. There were 30% more attendees at SHRM10 than at SHRM09, and I think that was a part of the enthusiasm that buzzed around the event.

What did I learn?

I learned more about strategic planning, creating a better experience for job candidates, and serving others. I learned that being involved in the social world before the event helps you to make connections and build upon them once you arrive. I learned that the Monster and Smartbrief teams (and by default, me!) work their butts off to make the experience amazing for everyone.

Here are a few other lessons I’ve learned and a few that I’m still digesting.

Connections

If you’ve ever heard me or another socially-active person mention events, we probably mention connections as a benefit. While it seems somewhat vague, I’ll put it this way: I have a list of 30 people to follow up with who most people would salivate to connect with. Why do I, a little old HR guy from Huntsville, Alabama, get to reach out to them? I’m not completely sure, but I think it has something to do with my passion for the profession and my desire to see things improve. I can’t think of any other reason they’d be interested.

Even if I had done nothing else during this event other than talk and meet people, it would have been completely worth the effort. How’s that for value?

The day job

It seemed almost like an afterthought, but I did get some great ideas to carry back with me to my day job. While I didn’t get to see all of the sessions I wanted (some of those suckers fill up fast!), I did experience a handful of solid, value-packed speakers who challenged my thinking. This list is going to be the frustrating one, probably. While I’d like to work on the 50 things we’re doing wrong, in reality I just can’t find the time to do all of them. But if I can make a few small changes (just a few, mind you), and it has a positive impact on my workplace and the overall organization, I think I might be okay with that for now.

Questioning my path

One thing I didn’t expect was questioning my career choices. I had multiple conversations with Eric Winegardner from Monster, Jennifer McClure from Unbridled Talent, and Gerry Crispin from CareerXroads. All three of them are superstars in their own right, and all of them encouraged me to continue growing and developing in my career.

One of the most profound statements I’ve ever heard from Eric (and it wasn’t this one) was this: move up, not out. So many amazing HR pros eventually take off and leave the profession instead of continually climbing to be Directors, VPs, and Chief HR Officers. We need more great people to ascend to those positions instead of leaving them to the people with seniority by default (even if they don’t have the skills or passion to be great at it).

Jennifer asked me what I wanted to do with my career. I didn’t have a quick answer to that, and she reminded me that as a recruiter, I needed to know what I wanted before it was offered. For example, if she called me to recruit for a position I seriously wanted, but I sounded unsure, then I’d probably be passed over completely for the job even though it was a good fit for me. I need to figure out what I want to do next so I can seize the opportunity when it comes along.

Projects and partners

While I’m active quite often, it’s never as fulfilling when I’m working alone. I love love love getting the opportunity to help someone else to finish a difficult task or build something new. It’s so much more exciting and fun to share things with other people.

• Mike VanDervort shared a great idea that I can’t wait to assist him with.
• I’m on the lookout for ideas I can share with Matt Charney, because he was so helpful throughout my conference experience.
• Bryan Wempen and John Jorgenson (among others) are great local/state SHRM leaders, and I am seriously thinking about partnering with them to develop more resources to better serve their members.
• Chuck Salvetti, the guy in charge of student and young professional stuff at SHRM, has asked if I would volunteer to help get the young professional group up and running smoothly. I’ just sent in my application, Chuck!

There are others, but I don’t want to let all of the cats out of the bag just yet.

Keep the flame burning

While I’m completely and totally on fire right now, it won’t last. I’m going to try to stave it off for as long as I possibly can, but the experience will fade from my mind and other stuff will clutter up my brain. How in the world can I keep it going? What if I don’t have an Uncle Andre hanging around to help keep me on the right track? If I could have learned one thing at SHRM, it would have been how to keep the spirit and enthusiasm all year long. Exploring that one could be a complete post in itself, but if you have your own suggestions, I’d love to hear them!

SHRM membership in my future?

I was prompted by some amazing people, including Gerry Crispin, Nancy Newell, Sue Meisinger, Tara Mauk Arthur, China Gorman, Nancy Slotnick (and more), to join SHRM. I still haven’t made the leap just yet, but I think it’s going to be sometime in the near future. To top it off, both Gerry and Sue offered me this deal: if I don’t get my money’s worth in value from SHRM membership, then they will pay me back out of their own pockets. It doesn’t get much simpler than that, huh?

What you missed if you weren’t there

If you haven’t seen it yet, there was some amazing content generated from the event. Below are some of the best resources I’ve seen so far (and a few of mine thrown in because I’m me ).

• Jennifer McClure
• Monster Thinking
• Monster’s Video Vault on Youtube
• Smartblog on Workforce
• My posts on MonsterThinking.com about the universal language of customer service, expect the best and get the most from your people, and the strategic role engagement plays for HR pros
• My other miscellaneous posts from the SHRM10 event here on the blog
• TLNT’s coverage
• Charlie Judy
• Mark Stelzner
• Jessica Miller-Merrill
• Mike VanDervort

I’m working with the Monster Street Team to cover the SHRM annual conference. Click here for the whole story.

I had a chance to sit in on the SHRM10 social media panel featuring Curtis Midkiff, Mike Vandervort, Bryan Wempen, and Laurie Ruettimann. It was interesting that they stuck it in an early morning time slot in a private area instead of keeping it more public for people to participate and learn from the panel.

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I’m working with the Monster Street Team to cover the SHRM annual conference. Click here for the whole story.

Here’s a short video talking about one of the most valuable parts of my conference experience so far!

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I’m working with the Monster Street Team to cover the SHRM annual conference. Click here for the whole story.

Whew! If I look tired, it’s because I am. Little sleep, getting up early, and blocking out a time for a session at every opportunity is getting to me, but that doesn’t mean I’m not learning and doing a lot of interesting things. Check out the video below for my short recap of the day through noon.

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I’m working with the Monster Street Team to cover the SHRM annual conference. Click here for the whole story.

Here’s a short video I shot during a break. I talk about the great session I was able to hit on customer service earlier today. Check below the video for a few highlights of the session.

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Great customer service

• It’s not just for external customers. Apply it internally and you may benefit as well.
• Shift your bell curve. If you aim for standard service or you’ll fall short half of the time. Aim for amazing service and you’ll be above average most of the time.
• Great service trickles down. There are times that the business impact of providing a knock-your-socks-off level of service might seem minimal. While business impact may not be immediate, it will come out somewhere down the line. Ever heard of Zappos?
• Customer needs are fairly simple (even if they’re not always easy).
• Companies need to find and share their own service legends. Organizations should collect and internally share customer service stories. One neat idea is to aggregate them and create a small booklet to share with employees.

I wrote on customer service recently on my other blog. Have any stories about amazing service that you care to share?